Tough Decisions
by Insidiae
Summary: Kairi believes it isn't fair that she has to choose between the two boys she loves more than anything in the world, and wonders if she really even has to. RKS


It really wasn't fair, she reflected, as she stared down at the two boys below her.

Riku and Sora sat on the dock where the three of them had first tried to sail off a little over a year ago, talking animatedly about… whatever teenage boys talked about. Kairi sat on the roof of a nearby shed, watching the two of them.

She sighed forlornly. Where the hell was karma when you needed it? Hadn't the three of them been through enough? Why did she have to be the one to choose?

She had known for awhile that both of them liked her, and were continuously fighting for her attention, as well as her safety. She felt extremely guilty, considering how she seemed to be one of the main causes of the events that had occurred over the past year. Because of her, her two best friends had put everything on the line, even their lives.

Kairi smiled faintly at the thought. Mm, best friends indeed.

She remembered the day she first woke up on Destiny Islands. Riku and Sora had found her together, and almost never left her side since. They took care of her and protected her, and for such small things in return.

For Sora, Kairi had been a new start – a blank slate. With no past or memories, she would listen to his wild ideas with compassion and fascination. She had no idea of what was real or not, and thus never called him a dreamer or a fool, despite how fantastic or foolish his ideas were.

For Riku, Kairi had been proof. Proof that something was out there, beyond the small boundaries of Destiny Islands. It had given him the initiative to finally form a plan to get away – to get anywhere.

And for Kairi, the two of them had been her entire existence.

It was ironic, really. Her presence was only marked by the minds of two adolescent boys. She had had no clue where she had come from, and no way to prove she had ever even been alive without them. With Riku and Sora, Kairi had created memories, and love. Without that love, the memories of Kairi would've slowly faded from the minds of people like Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus (not that she held it against them), until there was nothing left.

But Sora and Riku would never forget her. Never.

As long as they existed, she existed, too.

Man, she owed them.

How many times had they saved her, now? It was hard to keep count. Sora had been willing to give up his own heart, just to save hers at The End of the World, giving himself up to become a Heartless (and a lowly one at that). Riku had rescued her when that red-headed Nobody, Axel, had taken her captive, those his form was a little… different at the time.

And what had she done for them? Zilch, except listen and be proof.

It angered her that she couldn't have been more help to them. She hadn't been there when the going had been tough, oh no. And until the day she died, curiosity would gnaw at her like a bug as to what happened between the two of them during her absence.

Whatever it had been, it definitely changed something between them.

They were closer now. That friendly rivalry (which, she reflected a little sourly, had turned into an all-out war) no longer existed between the two of them. It was like… a breath of fresh air. Like a wall that had been torn down.

It made her happy, but the matter of the fact was, she still had a choice to make.

In the midst of her troubled thoughts, Sora raised his head from his discussion with Riku, and turned to look out at the beach when he saw Kairi on the roof. He caught her eye and beckoned her down. Riku followed his line of vision and also motioned her towards them. With a sigh, Kairi removed herself from the roof and walked over to them, taking her usual spot to Sora's right.

"Hey Kairi, we were just talking about you!" She raised an eyebrow.

"About me?"

"Well," Riku started for Sora. "We were kind of talking about everything that's happened. Sitting here just sort of reminded us, you know?" Kairi nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, this dock is where it all began, huh?"

Sora nodded enthusiastically.

"So much has happened, it feels weird to be back, without any Heartless out to get us or Nobodies taking over worlds." Riku and Sora went back to talking animatedly about their adventures, and Kairi once again felt that forlorn reminder that she had to make her decision soon. So absorbed was she in her sad thoughts that she almost missed the flash of yellow in Riku's hands.

"Riku, what do you have there?"

"Hm?" He looked down at his hand. "Oh, this. It's a paopu fruit. Me and Sora found it and were going to split as the sun set tonight. Actually," he looked over the ocean at the orange sphere slowly sinking behind the waves. "It looks like we should do it soon. Seems like we lost track of time, eh Sora?" Sora chuckled as Kairi found herself in a dream-like state. "Hey, Kairi, you want some?"

"…Sure."

Kairi was not a stupid girl. She knew what the paopu represented. As Sora cut the fruit and divided it among the three of them, she couldn't help but wonder…

…What the hell?

She bit into the juicy fruit, and watched as the boys followed suit. And, as the sun slowly cast its ethereal glow over the three, and the cheerful Riku and Sora became highlighted by orange rays, realization suddenly slammed into Kairi with the force of a brick wall.

There was love between them. All three of them.

Two arms wrapped around her shoulders.

"Hey, Kairi, you alright? You've seemed kind of down lately."

"Yeah," Riku agreed with his younger companion. "You're supposed to be happy woman we both remember when off on our great quests. What's the point of saving the world if all we have to come back to is a droopy-eyed damsel in distress?"

"I am not a damsel in distress!" Kairi retorted indignantly to the silver-haired boy. "I've saved your butts plenty off times, and I can kick them just as easily."

"Don't we know it…" Sora mumbled under his breath, as he and Riku started their daily 'We're-manly-men' argument with the red-haired girl.

Decisions? Ha. There was no choice to be made here.

"Oh, hey you guys, look, it's a shooting star!"

"You should make a wish Sora, seeing as you're the one who saw it first."

"No way! I don't trust those things! The last time one of those showed up, it was a whole mess of them, and I ended up fighting people with a giant housekey!"

"Alright then. Why don't you make a wish then, Kairi?" She thought about it seriously.

"Nah," she finally said at last, leaning her head back on the crook of Riku and Sora's shoulders. "I already have everything I could ever wish for."


End file.
